Square Enix has revealed gameplay for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince at the latest Nintendo Direct.
Initially announced last month, The new game in the Dragon Quest Monsters series acts as a re-imagining of Dragon Quest IV from the villain, Psaro’s perspective. Psaro is cursed by an evil sorcerer, and he becomes unable to fight monsters by himself. Instead, he becomes a Monster Wrangler. This lets him recruit monsters to fight for him. With these monsters, he goes on a quest for revenge across the world of Nadiria. As a final teaser, the Hero of Dragon Quest IV is shown at the end of the trailer in an antagonistic role.
Psaro’s quest to become the Master of Monsterkind takes him to a wide variety of locales. In the trailer alone, he is shown running along fields, in a volcano, and riding a floating plant across mountains made of cake.
The game will also feature an auto-battle mechanic to make grinding easier. More excitingly, it also includes changing seasons, with a Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter that not only affect how the environment is traversed but also which monsters appear in each area. Series traditions such as synthesis, where two monsters are fused together to create a stronger monster, also return. However, this time, there is a twist. Rather than simply creating a new monster, The Dark Prince’s synthesis allows players to build each monster to each their liking. Square Enix promises an “easy to understand” system that hides “a staggering amount of depth”.
What is Dragon Quest Monsters?
Dragon Quest Monsters is a spinoff of the Dragon Quest series that hasn’t seen an entry release in the West since Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 in 2011. The games see you collect, train and fight with various monsters from across the Dragon Quest franchise. From classics like Slimes to the wonderfully named Sham Hatwitch, there are plenty of great monsters to build a team from.
All of this leaves players with a lot to sink their teeth into when Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince releases on December 1, 2023.
You can watch the trailer here:
